Ruben Rosario: Nonviolent Peaceforce works for international harmony

Mel Duncan chuckled over the phone when I mentioned that as a lifelong "community organizer," the 62-year-old St. Paul resident is as qualified to run for president as anyone.

"I'm very proud to be one," replied Duncan, although the father of eight is not interested in the Oval Office job.

See, this guy's as patriotic as they come. One of his sons served in Iraq. But his red, white and blue flag-waving centers squarely on achieving peace on an international scale. He took the phrase "peace on earth, good will toward men" to heart years ago.

Thirteen years ago, Duncan and David Hartsough, a Quaker activist he met at a peace conference at The Hague in the Netherlands, came up with the idea to put boots on the ground to resolve conflicts throughout the globe.

But these boots -- roughly 200 civilian folks trained in nonviolent peacemaking techniques inspired by Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and others -- don't carry weapons. Instead, they develop long-term but neutral relationships with opposite sides of an often violent dispute and build the trust and confidence required to help broker deals or cease-fires.

Now marking its 10th year of operation, the Nonviolent Peaceforce -- whose administrative office is in Minneapolis -- has rescued kidnapped children, reduced gender-based violence and warded off violent clashes without a shot being fired in places such as Sri Lanka, the Philippines and more recently Southern Sudan. It is also contemplating involvement in Myanmar and Syria.

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'HARD-NOSED HOPE'

Duncan's group works to remove civilians from combat zones, provide opposing factions a safe space to negotiate and teach and implement violence prevention and reduction methods. Most but not all of its members are nationals who live and work in the communities they serve.

"What we are demonstrating is that you can achieve peace without bringing in more guns or introducing more violence," said Duncan, who was a close friend of the late Sen. Paul Wellstone and who founded Advocating Change Together, a self-advocacy organization of people with developmental disabilities. "It is built around relationship and trust. It's not a quixotic notion. It's hard-nosed hope that works."

Take the forced abductions of children from a village in Sri Lanka several years ago by members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil. The rebel group and the government had signed a ceasefire that called for the end to the kidnappings of mostly boys to turn them into child soldiers.

The enraged mothers gathered and marched into the jungle to confront the kidnappers at their camp several miles away. Such a confrontation could lead to bloodshed. Enter Aseervatham Florington, a Sri Lankan national and NP member trained in unarmed civilian peacekeeping methods. He was known to the rebels. He spoke about the international consequences of their actions and what it might do to their cause. He also appealed to their sense of right and wrong. It took a few days, but the mothers returned home with their children.

Last year, a violent confrontation between farmers and cattle herders in Southern Sudan forced the displacement of 70,000 people, mostly women and children.

An NP team already embedded in the region ultimately convinced the two sides to put down their arms and come to an agreement where cattle would be moved without disrupting the planting of crops.

COTTON, BASEBALL, PEACE

So, why should a Twin Citian like me care what happens thousands of miles away in a place that seemingly offers nothing of value to me or affects my everyday life?

"It's important because of how small and interconnected the world is now," said Tiffany Easthom, NP's country director for Southern Sudan. "There's a ripple effect that perhaps we may not be aware of, but such instability can affect U.S. policy and foreign investments."

Easthom, who will be in town next week to speak about the growing use of women as unarmed peacekeepers in that area of the world, also cites the universal human connection that links us all.

"When it comes to it, people around the world are very much the same," she said. "They want to raise their children in a safe environment and find a way to put a roof over their heads and food on the table."

This is hardly Duncan's first peace-related initiative. The Macalester College graduate's idea for NP initially germinated 30 years ago when he joined the "cotton/coffee" brigade of mostly foreign activists who spread across villages in Nicaragua during the Contra war.

Their presence and mingling with villagers stopped both sides from committing further atrocities. "We picked cotton during the day and played baseball with the people," Duncan recalled. "The villagers were not attacked as long as we were there with them."

Duncan, who now serves as the group's director of advocacy and outreach, said funding mainly comes from the United Nations and several government entities and foundations. More than one-third comes from individual donors, and "a lot of them are Minnesotans," Duncan said with pride.

Peace out.

Ruben Rosario can be reached at 651 228-54454 or email at rrosario@pioneerpress.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @nycrican.